In a natural setting, diseases play an important role in ecosystem health and most forests could not survive without them. In the urban setting, where we are often dealing with individual trees rather than entire populations, diseases can and, in many cases, should be treated or prevented to ensure the health of our urban forests.

Insects are amongst the most diverse and successful group of organisms on the planet. There is an estimated 900,000 to 1,500,000 species worldwide, making up a staggering 80-89% of all named animal species. They have a long history of co-evolution with trees and plants.

Twenty-five years ago, growth regulators were a niche within a niche. Utilized by large utility companies to keep trees out of power lines, but largely ignored by tree health professionals. Today, growth regulators are better understood, widely used, and regulating growth is just one of the ways they are benefiting trees.

Soils play a crucial role in the health of trees. Often times, a tree is stressed and weakened from poor soils before it is ever affected by a diseases or pest. Understanding the soil issue and applying the right cultural and treatment strategy is important to improving the health of the tree.